July 19, 2017
Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Kubu Bharu: Big hill in the heat
Cycling through a big city is seldom an attractive prospect so the plan for this morning was to catch the train to Batu Caves and start cycling to Kuala Kubu Bharu from there. However, they would not allow us onto the train until after peak hours, ie. nine thirty. So we set off into the Kuala Lumpur rush hour traffic and cycled to Batu Caves stopping off for some roti for breakfast along the way. In the end it wasn't that bad.
Once we got to Batu caves, the lady in my mobile phone didn't really get her ducks in a row and we wasted a lot of time getting through a rubbish dump. So I stopped and adjusted the settings of the route calculation algorithm and we carried on towards Kuala Kubu Bharu.
We soon hit the first little hill - not too long but rather steep in the building heat. We passed through some lovely dipterocarpus forest and would love to have done some birding but just had to keep slogging on.
After that it was a long climb up to about 375 meters. It wasn't too steep but it was very hot and humid. When we got to the top we found a series of pipes drawing lovely spring water out of the mountain. Just what the doctor ordered.
After that it was a great downhill run to Hulu Yam Bharu where we had some lunch before pushing on in the unrelenting heat to Kuala Kubu Bharu.
We knew accomodation options weren't going to be great. Still, after checking out al three establishments and settling on the Sahara Hotel we still felt slightly short changed. The room is adequate (we've slept in a lot worse) but I feel I paid double the price of what it is worth. The problem could lie in my lack of haggling skills.
After we settled in, I spent an hour or so changing the oil in the Rohloff hubs, about 250 kilometers past the recommended distance but as Leigh says, 5000 kilometers is just a rough number.
Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 3,092 km (1,920 miles)
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